Earlier this year, the film world was buzzing about Peter Jackson's lawsuit against New Line for unpaid cash from the huge Lord of the Rings series. Jackson and Bob Shaye batted back and forth for a while, and then the story faded into the ether. Now we've got a new lawsuit to chew on, but this one took a few years to come together. Word has it that Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Nia Vardalos have come together to sue one of the producers of their huge hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for owed profits. The suit is asking for full accounting for the film's profits and unspecified damages for the trio, because "The accounting statements rendered by defendants have been vague and inadequate in failing to provide information consistent with industry standards." (Gotta love legal talk!)

As we know, Vardalos wrote and starred in the movie, while couple Hanks and Wilson produced it along with Gary Goetzman. They claim that they are still owed their "share of net profits" -- the lawsuit says that the movie cost $5 mil, we know that the film grossed well over $350 million and they say that Gold Circle Films claims that the gross receipts total $287 million. That's a bit of a discrepancy. Of course, the company is saying that the suit is bull, or rather, "frivolous" and "completely without merit." If they get anywhere with this case, the cash will be awfully handy, since they're coming together again for Vardalos' next project -- My Life in Ruins.

Okay, now I'm convinced that many of the critics whose reviews count over at Rotten Tomatoes are secretly Pod People. That's the only way I can think of to explain how The Chumscrubber has a 32% rating over there, while Broken Flowers has an 87%.  I saw both of these movies, and I'll tell you right now, one of them? Not nearly as great as its been touted to be. And the other? Much, much better than a lot of critics are giving it credit for.

The Chumscrubber is not your typical teen film. It tackles complex social issues without being condescending; it somehow manages to walk the line between drama and dark satiric comedy without being trite, cutesy, or quirky for the sake of quirkiness (an annoying trend which I'm seeing more and more with indie films lately).

This was a fabulously layered movie about the isolating loneliness of a self-medicated society, a world where everyone walks around in a solipsitic bubble, lightly bumping into each other rather than really interacting. On the surface, The Chumscrubber might appear to be just your average indie satire of suburban society, but there is much more to this movie than that.